Franz Reichelt dreamt of designing the first wearable parachute. The only problem was he wasn't good at it and he liked to test things himself.
(Spoilers: The GIF of him testing it.)
On February 1912 Franz announced to the press that he had received permission to conduct a test of one of his designs on a dummy from the Eiffel Tower. To him this was the perfect time to actually test his invention.
On Sunday, February 4, at 7:00 a.m., he arrived at the tower by car with two friends to a crowd of anxious onlookers, who were cordoned off outside the drop-zone. He was already wearing his parachute suit. A suit that did not restrict the wearer's movements when the parachute was packed, and the method of deploying the parachute as being as simple as extending the arms out to form a cross with the body. Once extended, the outfit resembled "a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk". The weather was cold, with temperatures below 32 °F and there was a stiff breeze blowing. (More on podcast)
Franz Reichelt dreamt of designing the first wearable parachute. The only problem was he wasn't good at it and he liked to test things himself.
(Spoilers: The GIF of him testing it.)
On February 1912 Franz announced to the press that he had received permission to conduct a test of one of his designs on a dummy from the Eiffel Tower. To him this was the perfect time to actually test his invention.
On Sunday, February 4, at 7:00 a.m., he arrived at the tower by car with two friends to a crowd of anxious onlookers, who were cordoned off outside the drop-zone. He was already wearing his parachute suit. A suit that did not restrict the wearer's movements when the parachute was packed, and the method of deploying the parachute as being as simple as extending the arms out to form a cross with the body. Once extended, the outfit resembled "a sort of cloak fitted with a vast hood of silk". The weather was cold, with temperatures below 32 °F and there was a stiff breeze blowing. (More on podcast)
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